July 29th 2024.
Devon Horton, the Superintendent of Georgia's DeKalb County School District, has been given a new appointment to the Department of Homeland Security's School Safety Clearinghouse Advisory Board. This board, as described by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency website, is responsible for providing advice and recommendations on the best practices for school safety across the country. Horton is one of three superintendents chosen to be part of this 26-member board, which is composed of experts in school safety and education leaders. Together, they will focus on providing guidance and recommendations to improve the security of K-12 schools.
The main role of this advisory board is to advise Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, and they will be working under the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency to implement the best practices they develop. These recommendations will be made available to the public on a federal platform called SchoolSafety.gov. In a statement, Horton expressed his honor to be part of this board and his commitment to creating safe learning environments for students. He believes that their collective experiences will be crucial in developing practical solutions to protect students, staff, and communities in the face of ever-shifting and elevated threats.
The first meeting of this advisory board is scheduled to take place in the fall of 2024. It was established in October 2023 to fulfill the requirements of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. This act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022, aims to improve school safety through various measures, including expanding federal funding for crisis intervention programs.
According to the Department of Justice, the BCSA (Bipartisan Safer Communities Act) has authorized a total of $1.4 billion in funding for violence-prevention and intervention programs between 2022 and 2026. Thanks to this increased funding, over $73 million in supplemental OJP STOP School Violence grants have been awarded to enhance school security. As a result, more than 3,500 school-enhanced intervention teams have been created, over 2,300 schools have formed intervention teams, and 141 schools have implemented school safety plans.
In June 2024, the White House released a report on the progress of the BSCA and its impact. The report states that the Biden-Harris Administration expanded and codified the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse, which is part of the Luke and Alex School Safety Act introduced in the BSCA. This Clearinghouse, available at SchoolSafety.gov, provides evidence-based practices and recommendations for school safety to be used by various entities such as states, local educational agencies, law enforcement agencies, health professionals, and the general public.
The report also mentions that the BSCA has provided $1 billion for the new Stronger Connections grant program, which helps schools invest in strategies to keep their students safe. The Department of Education released this funding to states in September 2022, and all states have since run competitions to allocate these funds to over 2,100 high-need communities. Preliminary data shows that schools are using these funds to update safety plans, hire mental health professionals and school resource officers, implement community violence intervention and prevention strategies, install security equipment, conduct school climate surveys, address chronic absenteeism, and implement anti-bullying and anti-harassment programs.
It is evident that the Biden-Harris Administration is taking significant steps to address the issue of school safety and violence. However, according to a former teacher, there is still a literacy crisis in America that needs to be addressed urgently. Despite these ongoing efforts, it is essential to remember that there are still other challenges facing the education system that require attention.
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